[5] How are people in power portrayed in your books?

            Many books portray people in power differently. Some of the books I have been reading, notably The Day of Battle by Rick Atkinson, Champion by Marie Lu, and The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, illustrate the diversity of portrayal of those in power. I think that all leaders should discover these essential qualities of leadership, some of which Atkinson, Lu, and Miller illustrate in their books.

            In The Day of Battle, a book that describes the Italian Campaign during World War II, the generals who are in power in the Allied army are shown as out of touch leaders who do not understand the capabilities of their soldiers. One example of this is when the army is advancing on the Germans. The Allies do not have enough trucks to supply the army for a march North, however the generals do not acknowledge this. They continue on, ignoring the pleas of the logistics department. After marching for a time, they run very low on supplies, and the generals decide to blame the logistics department for their failure. This is just one example of the generals' incompetence. They are quick to blame and headstrong.

            The book Champion, a dystopian novel set in America after a large part of it has been flooded, shows those in power as snooty idealists. They want the country to be perfect, however, they do not possess the means or the right ideas to make it so. They are deceived by the conditions in which they live about the state of the country, which may be suffering while the powerful aristocracy is still pampered. The senators of the Republic, second in power only to the Elector, the effective king of the country, are shown to be greedy politicians who compete for power whenever they can.

            The Song of Achilles, a book depicting a military expedition to conquer Troy,  describes a council of kings and generals who lead the expedition. All of the generals rose through the ranks themselves, and as a result of that they are much more conscious of the state of their army and are in much more frequent contact with their soldiers. They actively try to stay up to date on the morale, abilities, and general condition of the army. The majority of the council is extremely smart, a factor which helps in directing the army. The soldiers are greatly affected by the attention which they receive from the senior officers, and are encouraged by it to fight at their best.

            After analyzing these three books, I have come to the conclusion that power is often misplaced. In both The Day of Battle and Champion, the leaders are out of touch and overrate the capabilities of those who serve them. The council in The Song of Achilles is tremendously effective and manages to avoid the often indecision of a normal council, and instead works more like a team in solving the problems of the army. The most effective leaders are the most down-to-earth, knowledgeable, and accepting of criticism and redirection from their subordinates. This is a quality found in very few leaders, but can be achieved with education and appropriate training.

[4] Social Injustice in Our Schools

            Our modern society, imperfect as it is, has come a long way since the Civil Rights Era, when African Americans suffered from tremendous bias and social injustice, which often led to economic disadvantages. Progress has been made in the areas of some injustices which were once commonplace.  Many people in our country now believe that with the advantage of free public education, any member of society can rise to success. However, one of the more disturbing articles I have read in my independent reading life recently is "In Public Education, Edge Still Goes to the Rich" (Eduardo Porter, New York Times, Nov. 5 2013). This article exposes a tremendous injustice in our public education system which affects the poorer segments of the African American community as well as their counterparts in other ethnic groups. The problem is that many schools that serve wealthier school districts gain larger funding, in contrast to districts serving poorer areas. Current politicians have tried to resolve this issue but have failed to allocate adequate resources, which they must do in order to solve the issue of underfunded schools.

            According to research done by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, among thirty-four nations surveyed by the O.E.C.D., only the U.S., Israel, and Turkey allocate more resources to schools which serve wealthier districts, as opposed to their poorer counterparts.  The article "In Public Education, Edge Still Goes to the Rich" states: "In New York, schools spend an average of $19,000 per student. In Tennessee they spend $8,200. The Alpine school district in Utah spends only $5,321. And funding in some states is even more skewed than in New York." The article also says that rich enclaves like Bridgehampton and Amagansett spent $25,505 on each student, while poorer districts spent an average of only $12,861. An even more disturbing fact is that only seventeen states in the entire U.S. spend more on poorer districts than wealthy districts. Those in the seventeen which spend more include New Jersey, Vermont, and Massachusetts, according to the article. It also says that funding is the same for all schools in only fifteen states. And another sixteen states, which provide large sums of money for education and distribute it equitably, are regressively cutting the funding for their schools.

            This issue is one of the most heavily dodged in politics today. David Sciarra, executive director of the Education Law Center in Newark, an advocacy group for disadvantaged students, said on education reform, “To a large extent it is a huge distraction. We never get to the question of what resources we need to get the students to meet the standards.” Education reform and the government will not solve this tremendous problem, however, many activism groups are taking charge and attempting to dislodge this injustice. We can only hope that, in the precedent created by the No Child Left Behind Act, laws which stop this practice will be passed.